White House: Iran's choice for U.N. envoy 'not viable'

Apr. 8, 2014
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One of 60 American hostages-his hands bound blindfolded-is displayed to the crowd outside the American embassy in Tehran, Nov. 9, 1979. Some of the militant Iranian students who seized the embassy in the Iranian capital flank the hostage. (AP Photo) / ASSOCIATED PRESS

by Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

by Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - The White House says it has told Iran it will have to find an different envoy for the United Nations and not one who participated in the 1979 taking of 52 U.S. diplomats in Tehran.

"The U.S. government has informed the government of Iran that this potential selection is not viable," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday.

Carney's statement came a day after the Senate passed a bill to deny a visa to anyone representative of the U.N. "who has been found to have been engaged in espionage activities or a terrorist activity against the United States and poses a threat to United States national security interests."

The bill, proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who called Iran's choice of Hamid Abutalebi an insult.

"This nomination is part of Iran's clear and consistent pattern of virulent anti-Americanism that has defined their foreign policy since 1979," Cruz said Monday before the Senate vote. "We need to send Tehran an equally clear message: The United States Senate is not going to just ignore this most recent insult but is going to give our president the authority to affirmatively reject it."

A matching bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.

U.S. officials allege that Iran's proposed envoy, Abutalebi, participated in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The embassy seizure happened during the Iranian revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and brought the current regime to power.

Abutalebi has worked as Iran's ambassador to Belgium, the European Union, Italy and Australia. He has insisted that his involvement in the group Muslim Students Following the Imam's Line was limited to translation and negotiation, according to the Associated Press.